Next Generation Board Services for Family-Owned Businesses

The Giersch Group of Milwaukee works with family run businesses across southeast Wisconsin to help plan for growth and strategically managed succession. We provide services for new family-owned businesses as well as multi-generation family companies.

We believe meaningful interaction in a private setting is the best way to prepare the next generation of a family business for leadership.

What makes our board services better than online or classroom business management classes?

The Giersch Group’s next generation board services focus on financial results, teaching family business managers how to use financials to manage the business.

Cultivating the Next Generation through Meaningful Participation

Our board services will help the next generation:

Define their role in the family and the business

Own the vision for the future and understand their role as a steward

Build the knowledge and skills required to manage and/or own a family business

Build confidence in their ability and judgment in business leadership

The Giersch Group next generation board services create a forum for the next generation to organize, produce and demonstrate their participation in the family business. This meaningful and gradual participation engages the next generation in the responsibilities of the family.

Board Services Monthly Meetings

Included in our next generation board services are monthly management discussion and analysis meetings to help families run their businesses based on the best corporate financial and governance practices, adapted for a family-owned business.

Monthly meetings last around two hours and include both the current and next generation of leadership with the goal of establishing agreement and mastery around solid practices for running the company successfully.

A comprehensive look at the prior month’s financial statements is the heart of the exercise, along with a comparison of financials to budget and careful monitoring of profitability. Revenue and key customers are reviewed along with the customer growth strategy and marketing to drive revenue.

Preparing for meetings

One week prior to each meeting (to the extent documents are available) we will request:

Beginning and end of month balance sheets from the previous month

Prior month’s income statement compared to last year, and/or to budget

Prior month’s cash flow statement

We recognize that as a private company your privacy is of utmost importance. We agree to maintain in confidence all information we receive from you and not disclose such confidential information, by publication or otherwise, to any other person.

In providing with next generation board services, we will rely upon the documents and data provided by you and will make no independent investigation or review in order to confirm the accuracy or completeness of any documents. The Giersch Group also provides bookkeeping services for small and family-run businesses which provide monthly, quarterly and annual reporting.

Imparting Financial Literacy to the Next Generation of Business Leadership

In the context of preparing the next generation of a family-run business for leadership, financial literacy means having the ability to understand the role of money in the ownership and operation of a small enterprise.

Our financial literacy training includes the following topics:

Why money flows into a company (revenue generation and investment)

Why money flows out of a company (expenses as the ownership of the means of production)

Why the business is making a profit or losing money and what can be done to control it (Business model as a % of revenue P&L)

What are the ramifications of the difference between the promises made between parties and the flow of money (cash vs. accrual)

What are the means by which and occasions when money flows in and out of a company (cash flow statement)

What is the impact of short term promises on your ability to manage the company (A/R and A/P)

How the interaction of cash and short term promises secure or threaten the firm (liquidity and working capital)

How the long term surplus/deficit of money affects your ability to manage (capital structure)

How you can predict and therefore control the surplus of deficit of money (financial modeling)

What is the difference between what you have, what you owe and what you own (balance sheet)

This is not an exhaustive list of what one can learn about the role of money in business, but these are the essential building blocks from which a business owner begins to understand the intersection of their business strategy and the financial realities of the business.

Cost of Next Generation Board Services

The cost of our next generation board services is $500 per month, plus mileage and expenses. The monthly fee may vary based on the complexity of the business and work done between meetings.

Developing the Next Generation of a Family Business

Our next generation board services will create a strategic road map for the succeeding generation, formally establish the next generation board and facilitate monthly board meetings to mentor development.

Every family is unique, and our development program is adapted to the particulars of every family we serve.